Sugar-producing product.



OI! S'iiIATJIES-COTT, MAEBIMISEHTEEEL CHUSETTS,

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0F KENOSHARWISCONSIN, ANDREW Vi. PRESTON, AND BEJADLEY W. RALMJDR, OF BOSTON, MASSA- dUGAILE-fEEtUTDUGIiNG PRODUCT.

We Drawing.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Qct. 8, 1912.

Application filed June 7, race. Serial Nd. 500,497.

This invention relates to improvements in sugar producing products, and roll; a more particularly to an in'iproved sugar producing product derived from sugarcane.

Among the salient objects of the present invention are to provide a product containing substantially the entire sugar contentin the same uniuvcrlzed crystallizablc condition in which it existed 1n the cane when harvested; to provide a product which c ntains the sugar in such condition that it may be dissolved or diffused out almost instantly by Water and its extraction accoi'upanied by the extraction of a minimum amount of impurities or constituents of the productothcr than sugar; to provide a product which in its finished condition may be preserved under ordinary alll'lGSpliQIh: exposures and conditions indefinitely without substantial deterioration; to provide a product which may be produced in its prcservable form at a very low cost, by the use or extremely simple and inexpensive apparatus and with the aid of help of only moderate skill; to provide a product which, after being deprived of sugar, leaves a byproduct which is in ideal condition for paper making or conversion into other cellulose products; to provide a product.- which yields up its entire sugar contentby an extremely simple and rapid dissolving and diffusion process, thus insuring a maximum yield of sugar while at the same time the extracted liquor or syrup is in a purer state than has heretofore been secured; and in general, to provide an improved product of the character referred to.

Describing this new product more artiluilarly, and the manner iii which l prot ucc the same, l have discovered that sugarcane in its matured undried condition, stripped and harvested as is usual, may be disintegrated and scpa rated into its chief structural parts, viz: the pith portion separated from the shell and other Woody portions, by an extremely simple and rapid process, and

that these tvio separated portions each possess individual and novel characteristics as products.

In practising this invention, I first shred the sugar-cane into finely divided condition, 1n which condition the shell and fibro-vascular portions are in the form of fine filaments and the pith in the form of small aarticlcs somewhat resembling Wet sawdust.

This shredding operation I have carried on I w1th great success by the use of a machine esslmtially like that shown and described in Patent No.- 813,300 granted to J. WV. Hyatt February 20, 1906, but there may be other suitable mechanism for performing such shredding. The novel product of the present invention is this pith portion of the singer-cane separated, or concentrated with reference to the shell and other woody p01- tions. The degree of separation or concen-' tration of the respective fractions is such as may be attained by screening under the de scribed conditions, and should be adequate to secure the advantages herein pointed out. To cllect the separation of the mass, after it; has been thus shredded, I resort to a screen mg or sifting operation, and to this end I prefer to use ordinary wire screens of suitable mesh; preferably using a series or gang of screens of successively liner mesh, through which the product is sifted. 'lhesc screens are agitated or shaken in a well-understood manner, and are ordinarily inclined so that the filamentary fiber passes over the screens and discharged at one end thereof while the pith material passes through. \Vhere the operation is performed n'lanually, the material may be placed upon the screens and the pith particles sifted out in batches much in the manner that the housewife drcdges flour. Commercially, luuvever, I employ a machiniso organized :1 .1t the mixture of shredded material is fed to a series of super-' posed inclined screens of graded and decreasing size from the uppermost down wz'udly, and these screens being agitated, the pith passes successively through the several screens, and the filamentary shreds pass over and discharge at one end of the machine,

The two products are then separately collected. The operation of screening may be performed by such a. machine very rapidly and at insignificant expense. The pithy and an extremely moderate temperature.

I important that the drying be so conducted tically asfast as formed.

plication-filed by George V; McMullen, Se-

that the full sugar content be preserved uninverted. To this end the drying is prefer- I ably conducted at a'temperature in the material being dried I ranging from 100 to 212 Fahrenheit and conducted under such conditions that the moisture-laden vapor is withdrawnfro'm the drying material pracn a pending aprial No. 425,614, filed April"?, 1908, there is set forth and described an apparatus which is suitable for efliciently and economically drying the products, although other types of apparatus may be used. The material should be dried to a condition of chemical; stability, containing less than thirty per cent: of'moisture, and'preferably to atmospheric dryness-containing say-six to twelve per cent. .of moisture.

The pith, product thus secured is characteristically new, among-others, in the following respects: It possesses the full sugar content uninverted, and it is shredded to such fine condition that after being dried the product yields its sugar to'the dissolving'fiuid (usually water) used in extractingalmost instantly, While atthe same time giving upcomparatively small percentages of the other less soluble constituents which for sugar making are regarded as impurities. WVhile each of the two products, the

pith and the filamentary shreds, contains its own natural percentage of sugar juices, it is a fact that the pith product contains a much larger percentage of sugar juicesthan the filamentary fiber, and for this reason theextraction of the sugar can be more ad'- vantageously carried out where these two products are'treated separately than where mixed. 7 That is to say, it is an advantage to treat the relatively rich and relatively lean product separately.

The residual by-product is largely cellulose, and is in ideal condition to have the ultimate fiber or pith cells separated from the intercellular structure by subsequent .the pith cellsl chemical treatment. It isnowfairly well art .of paper making that of sugar-cane," when quite thoroughly separated from the filamentary known in the cells, yield a parchment-like cellulose prod- 'uct of high value. Moreover, the peculiar properties of this pith product, after extraction, render it specially valuable for conversion into viscose, or cellulose in solution, for artificial-silk making and other uses to which such products are now widely applied. Still further, it'is, of course, well known that pith or-parenchymatous cellulose chemically'untreated iswidely'used' in the arts, particularly in the waterproofing of vessel hulls, and this pith product is, of course, especiallysuitable for this purpose by reason of the fact that it is freed from the bulk of the fibro-vascular and other filaments which have heretofore always been present in the commercial article made by other centrated with reference to the woody/fibrous constituents of the plant.

2. As .a new article of manufacture, finely divided pith of sugar-cane dried to a condition containing-less'than thirty per-cent.

of moisture, containing substantially its full natural sugar content in uninverted or cryst'allizable formv and separated or concentrated with reference to the woody fibrous constituents of the plant.

3. ,As a new article of manufacture,

of sugar-cane disintegrated to fine 'sawdust like form dried to'atmospherlc dryriesgpmitaining substantially :its full natural: sugar content in uninverted form and separated-or concentrated with reference to the woody fibrous constituents of the plant;

4. As a new article of manufacture, pit-h of sugarcane, comminuted to a. mass of sawdust-like particles, dried to permanently stable condition, impregnated with sugar in its naturahuninverted state and substan tially uncontaminated by chemically invert ed sugar, said pith being very largely physically' dissociated and separated from the woody fibrous constituents of the cane.

GEORGE-BARRETT MCMULLEN.

I Witnesses FRAN K L. BELKNAP, ANNA OBRIEN. 

